"The study then considers the treatment of rape and ravishment in a range of literary genres: in hagiography, female saints are repeatedly threatened with rape; the stories of Lucretia and Helen underpin legendary history; the acts of rape and ravishment challenge and shape chivalric order in romance; otherworldly rapes result in the conception of romance heroes. The final two chapters examine the ways in which Malory and Chaucer write and rewrite rape and ravishment."--BOOK JACKET.

This volume brings together specialists from different areas of medieval literary study to focus on the role of habits of thought in shaping attitudes toward women during the Middle Ages. The essays range from Old English literature to the Spanish Inquisition and encompass such genres as romance, chronicles, hagiography, and legal documents.

In thirteen studies of representations of rape in Medieval and Early Modern literature by such authors as Chaucer, Shakespeare and Spenser, this volume argues that some form of sexual violence against women serves as a foundation of Western culture. The volume has two purposes: first, to explore the resistance these pervasive representations generate and have generated for readers - especially for the female reader- and second, to explore what these representations tell us about social formations governing the relationships between men and women. More particularly, Rose and Robertson are interested in how representations of rape manifest a given culture's understanding of the female subject in society.

A Companion to Medieval Poetry presents a series oforiginal essays from leading literary scholars that explore Englishpoetry from the Anglo-Saxon period up to the15th century. Organised into three parts to echo the chronological andstylistic divisions between the Anglo-Saxon, Middle English andPost-Chaucerian periods, each section is introduced with contextualessays, providing a valuable introduction to the society andculture of the time Combines a general discussion of genres of medieval poetry,with specific consideration of texts and authors, includingBeowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Chaucer,Gower and Langland Features original essays by eminent scholars, including AndyOrchard, Carl Schmidt, Douglas Gray, and BarryWindeatt, who present a range of theoretical,historical, and cultural approaches to reading medieval poetry, aswell as offering close analysis of individual texts andtraditions

From devotional literature to political narratives, medieval texts propose that sexual violence victims have privileged moral, ethical, and spiritual insight. This book explores these discourses of survival in a wide range of medieval English texts, including letters of spiritual advice, legal cases, romances, and legendary histories.

Essays consider the variety of responses to warfare and combat in medieval literature.

`A lucid and rich analysis eminently suited to students at undergraduate and graduate levels.' CHOICEBeverley Kennedy puts Malory's concern with knighthood at the very heart of the Morte Darthur. She identifies three types of knight: the Heroic (Gawain), the Worshipful (Tristram and Arthur), and the True (Lancelot, Gareth and the Grail Knights), and argues that this knightly typology creates the thematic unity of the Morte Darthur. It also allows Malory to develop two quite different contexts, one pragmatic and political, the other religious and providential, within which the reader may judge why Arthur's reign ended in catastrophe.BEVERLEY KENNEDY is Professor of English at Marianopolis College, Canada.